Operating as Church of God, a Christian Fellowship, Canada

Questions and Answers

At one time, the disciples asked Jesus Christ whether it would be just the FEW who would be saved and inherit eternal life (Luke 13:23).

Christ’s answer was illuminating and perplexing at the same time, when He responded: “Strive to enter through the narrow gate, for MANY, I say to you, will seek to enter and will not be able” (verse 24).

At first glance, this might seem to indicate that most will not end up in the Kingdom of God; especially in light of His further statement in verse 28 that there will be “weeping and gnashing of teeth, when you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, and yourselves thrust out.”

In addition, this conclusion might even find further support in Christ’s statement in Matthew 7:13-14: “Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are MANY who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are FEW who find it.”

He added in Matthew 7:21-22: “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven,…

Are there prophecies about the Jews returning to the land of Israel to form a nation, in the present-day?

The modern State of Israel was established May 14, 1948. This event was the culmination of a vote in 1947 by the newly formed United Nations. The Israeli nation was born in spite of international opposition and the bitter resentment of Israel’s Arab neighbors.

The Bible reveals an earlier occurrence which finds parallels when some captive Jews were allowed to return from Babylon to rebuild the Temple and the Jewish nation. In this case, God very specifically told the Jewish people that He would make it possible for them to return:

“For thus says the LORD: After seventy years are completed at Babylon, I will visit you and perform My good word toward you, and cause you to return to this place” (Jeremiah 29:10).

Daniel the prophet came to understand this prophecy, and he stated:

“In the first year of Darius the son of Ahasuerus, of the lineage of the Medes, who was made king over the realm of the Chaldeans—in the first year of his reign I, Daniel, understood by the books the number of the years specified by the word of the LORD through…

Both the Old and the New Testament use the word “Hebrew” in several passages. However, the word has different meanings, depending on the context.

Technically, the first time the word “Hebrew” is used is in Genesis 14:13, where it is applied to Abram, in connection with the defeat of the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah in battle and the captivity of Lot. We read: “Then one who had escaped came and told Abram the Hebrew…”

Commentaries give several explanations for the use of this word in this passage.

The Ryrie Study Bible says:

“Abraham was the first person to be referred as a Hebrew, an ethnic designation that his descendants derived from him. The word comes from the name of his ancestor, Eber (11:10-14). It also had a wider use as a general designation for nomadic people like Abraham, who would have been considered a migrant by the Canaanites, since he came from Ur and Haran.”

The Nelson Study Bible adds the following:

“Here is the first use of the word Hebrew in the Bible. It comes from the name Eber, first mentioned in the table of nations in ch. 10 [compare Genesis 10:21]. The word is related to a verb meaning ‘cross over’ or ‘pass…

In Matthew 19:16-26, Mark 10:17-27 and Luke 18:18-27, we are introduced to a young rich ruler who came to Christ and asked Him what he must do to inherit eternal life. Christ told him that he had to keep the commandments and He added the need for him to sell what he had, and to follow Him. However, the rich man was unwilling to depart from his riches. We discuss Christ’s “invitation” to the rich man to become one of His disciples in previous Q&As, including whether God hears the prayers of sinners, and whether Christ offered the rich ruler a ministerial position. In that last Q&A, we said the following:

“Some commentaries agree that Christ offered the rich ruler a ministerial position. They point out that Christ’s command to the rich ruler to sell everything that he had was specifically given to that ruler because Christ saw that one thing was lacking in his qualification to become a minister, and that one thing was his love for money and his trust in riches … it appears that He was indeed willing to call him into the ministry, but sadly, the ruler loved money more than God and he…

When we are God Beings, will we remember our own past sins and the sins of others, including the sins of our close friends and family members?

The Bible teaches that we will enter the Family of God and become God Beings at the time of the return of Jesus Christ, when we have God’s Holy Spirit within us at the time of our death or of our change. As God Beings, we will think and behave like God the Father and Jesus Christ. How then does God look at the sins of others?

First of all, let us quickly review the question whether we are even going to remember our close friends, family members or mates in the resurrection. We addressed this question in our Q&A about Isaiah 65:17 (“For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth; And the former shall not be remembered or come to mind.”).

Answering the question whether we will still retain memories of human beings of this time, including our relationships with family and friends, we said:

“It will depend on whether or not they are righteous or evil (compare Psalm 34:15-16). Simply stated, those who are in God’s Kingdom will know one-another, but…

Proverbs 27:14 reads: “He who blesses his friend with a loud voice, rising early in the morning, It will be counted a curse to him.”

This seems to be a rather straight-forward statement, easy to understand. But upon further and deeper scrutiny, some very remarkable and easily overlooked truisms may come to light. This is a good example for the fact that the Bible must be read with great care and diligence, and that just a superficial glancing at biblical passages will not suffice.

(1) First, we should note that the person blesses, praises or thanks his friend “with a loud voice.”

The Broadman Bible Commentary states:

“Verse 14 is aimed at insincerity in greeting concealed by a loud but hypocritical voice.”

The Lamsa Bible renders the verse:

“He who blesses his friend with a flattering loud voice is not different from him who curses.”

The person who flatters his friend by blessing him with a loud voice, while he has ulterior motives and insincerity in his heart, can be compared with those who pray to God with a loud voice, but who are unwilling to submit to Him. In either case, such a “blessing” or prayer of “thanks” will not produce positive results, as…

We often hear about the need for a Christian to “come out of the world.” In order to understand what this means, it is important to look at where this instruction is given, and how to apply it in life practically.

A good place to begin is with Revelation 18:4-5, which reads “And I heard another voice from heaven saying, ‘Come out of her, my people, lest you share in her sins, and lest you receive of her plagues. For her sins have reached to heaven, and God has remembered her iniquities.’” This follows an explanation of how the fallen system of Babylon has influenced people and nations, and clearly indicates an instruction for God’s people to come out of it. Babylon here is indicted in sin, which is something that God obviously does not want people to be involved in. As a result, the instruction to come out of Babylon is an instruction to come out of sin.

With this in mind, we need to elaborate on the “way of sin” being equated with Babylon, or the Babylonian system. Following from this, we will see how the Bible indicates that the “way of sin” is not…

Proverbs 27:10 reads: “Do not forsake your own friend or your father’s friend, nor go to your brother’s house in the day of your calamity; Better is a neighbor nearby than a brother far away.”

This statement could be easily misunderstood if we do not read the passage carefully. First of all, we must understand that Proverb 27:10 does not address “spiritual” brothers and sisters, but physical “brothers.”

The Pulpit Commentary states the following:

“A father’s friend is one who is connected with a family by hereditary and ancestral bonds… Such a one is to be cherished and regarded with the utmost affection… The tried friend is more likely to help and sympathize with you than even your own brother, for a friend is born for adversity, and there is a friend that sticks closer than a brother… The mere blood relationship, which is the result of circumstances over which one has had no control, is inferior to the affectionate connection which arises from moral considerations and is the effect of deliberate choice.

“We must remember, too, that the practice of polygamy, with the separate establishments of the various wives, greatly weakened the tie of brotherhood. There was little love between David’s…

Some have advanced the idea that Christians should not wear wedding rings, as this custom is allegedly pagan, and some have even gone so far as to claim that it was adopted from occult practices. We understand that the Bible prohibits us to worship the true God with pagan symbolism or activities which were adopted from the way in which pagans worshipped their gods. But we must be careful that we do not carry this injunction too far and prohibit everything, whether it is used in worship services or otherwise, only because pagans might have engaged in it.

We addressed this issue in a recent Q&A, which answered the question as to whether Christians should use symbols which are used by pagans. Among other symbols, we discussed the symbol of the heart, certain symbols which are being used in sign language, the Star of David and the symbols of stars in general. We also pointed out that the mere fact that pagans and occultists attach a particular meaning and human interpretation to certain symbols should not compel a Christian to refrain from using these symbols.

This same principle applies to wedding rings. Some claim that wedding rings were “invented” by…

The definition of the words “foolish” or “folly” can be “a lack of good sense; foolishness: a foolish act, idea, or practice.” In other words, it is just not a good idea!

For almost 2,000 years, there have been many predictions about the return of Christ. Damian Thompson wrote a book called “The End of Time”. In his book of 393 pages, he lists hundreds of failed predictions over the last nearly 2,000 years. This book covers not only the return of Jesus Christ but the beliefs of many other religions and movements over two millennia.

The book was written in 1999 when there was the fear of what Y2K might produce which Mr Thompson describes as “three little digits signifying a crisis of spectacular proportions caused by just two digits. A few years ago, only those initiated into the mysteries of the software code knew or cared what this meant. By 1998, however, most people in the West knew about the problem and were beginning – just beginning – to feel seriously worried by it” (page 334).

As we know, nothing major happened at the turn of the century in terms of computer systems shutting down and all the dire consequences and…